YouTube Kids App – what you need to know, why you will want to download this if your kids surf YouTube and how to download.

YouTube is by far my kids’ favorite app. For hours they can sit and watch mindless videos of Pandas sneezing and Daniel Tiger welcoming them to the neighborhood. While we cautiously let them touch here and there to explore, there have been many instances where the video they decided to watch is just not kid appropriate.

YouTube recognizes the amount of kids using YouTube and has created an app JUST FOR KIDS. That’s right, YouTube Kids let’s your kids enjoy everything YouTube has to offer in a KID FRIENDLY manner. The app was created from the ground up with our little ones in mind, and it shows.

YouTube Kids App Review

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The YouTube Kids app was designed with kids in mind. The interface is super simple. Across the top you have icons for shows, music, learning, explore and search. (Keep reading, you can disable search!)

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What My Kids Think…

So before getting into the nitty gritty on what this app does, I wanted to do a video of my kids interacting with the app for the first time. I know I love it, but want to see what my kids thought about it? My daughter Z gives an overview. Yes, my 4-year-old typed in Kenny G…. gotta love auto-fill!

Shows

YouTube Kids features your kids’ favorite shows’ channels. From Sesame Street to Thomas & Friends, the interface shows a simple way for your kids to pick and choose what they want to watch.

Music

While my kids love to listen to silly songs on YouTube, I never thought about following a channel. We became instant fans of the Pancake Manor channel.

Learning

I caught my kid watching Ted-Ed, do you know how happy this makes this mom’s heart. Khan Academy has a fabulous channel as well!

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Explore

From Legos to my kids’ personal favorite YouTube Minecraft channel — StampyLongNose. StampyLongNose uses bad words in some of his video, but guess what – my kids can’t watch those videos when using the YouTube Kids app!

Timer for Kids Using App

Parents even have the ability to setup a timer that disables the app when the amount of time is up. From 1 minutes to 120 minutes, just setup the timer. As the clock ticks down, reminders will pop-up letting your kids know that time is ticking! I love this because YouTube Kids app gets to be the bad guy, not mom or dad!

Content Controls

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You can allow your child the ability to search, or you can disable this function to limit available videos to just those on the home screen. I tested out several things, like typing “SEX” into search. It isn’t going to happen.

YouTube Kids invited me to a private Facebook group to talk about this app. One of the questions posed was in regards to how does YouTube go about controlling the language content. Here is what the YouTube Kids team said…..

For the question on controlling language content, was your reader referring to bad language? Our teams are taking extensive precautions to ensure that only relevant and appropriate family-friendly videos are available on the YouTube Kids app. The videos are narrowed from the main YouTube site using intelligent and dynamic algorithms as well as a dedicated team who samples the videos and monitors the system for quality control. Let us know if any additional questions come in!

Audio

Decide if you want background music and sound effects.

Privacy

There is a watch history so you can see what your child is viewing. From the setting menu, you have the option to clear watch history.

What I Would Like To See

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Overall, the app is fabulous. It solves the problem many parents have of assuring that their children are watching videos that are age appropriate. It gives parents control over how long their kids are watching videos. But there are a few things that I would like to see….

1. The option to add videos for your children to see. I would love to add videos on the main screen that let them click and see them singing or of their favorite cartoon. Not a deal breaker, but a cool to have.

2. An easy to see viewing history in the back end.

Download YouTube Kids App

YouTube Kids is the first step for Google to move into the family market. As a mom of digital connected kids, I can’t wait to see where they venture next. With the amount of time my kids could spend watching videos on YouTube, I am so glad that Google developed this app.

If you have questions about the app or features that you would like to see, drop a line in the comments and I’ll make sure to share with the YouTube Kids team!

Thanks for the tip! My little ones (2 and 3yo) love watching youtube but I’ve been getting increasingly nervous that they’ll stumble across something inappropriate. I’ll have to check out this new app.

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